Luke 12:18-45

¹⁸So he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and I will build bigger ones, and there I will gather all my crops and my goods.

¹⁹And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid away for many years; relax; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’

²⁰But God said to him, ‘You fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have prepared?’

²¹“So is he who accumulates treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

²²Then He said to His disciples, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will wear.

²³Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.

²⁴Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storeroom nor barn; and yet God feeds them. How much more are you worth than birds?

²⁵And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

²⁶Therefore if you cannot do a very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

²⁷Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these.

²⁸But if God so clothes the grass, although it is in the field today, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, by how much rather will He clothe you, O you of little faith?

²⁹“And do not seek what you may eat or what you may drink, and do not be anxious.

³⁰For all these things the nations of the world seek after, but your Father knows that you need these things.

³¹But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.

³²“Do not fear, little flock, because your Father is well pleased to give to you the kingdom.

³³Sell your possessions and give alms; make for yourselves money bags which do not grow old, an unfailing treasure in the heavens, where a thief does not come near, nor does a moth destroy.

³⁴For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

³⁵“Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning;

³⁶and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding celebration, so that when he comes and knocks, immediately they may open to him.

³⁷Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly I say to you, that he will gird himself and have them recline to eat, and he will come and serve them.

³⁸And if he comes in the second watch, or comes in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.

³⁹But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have kept watch, and not allowed his house to be broken into.

⁴⁰Therefore you also be ready, for in an hour that you think not, the Son of Man comes.”

⁴¹Then Peter said to Him, “Lord, do You speak this parable only to us, or to all people?”

⁴²And the Lord said, “Who then is a faithful and wise manager, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season?

⁴³Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.

⁴⁴Truly I say to you, that he will appoint him over all his possessions.

⁴⁵But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk,